I'm an Idea Partner in Seattle and on the Partner Resources (a.k.a. Human Resources) team. It has been great to see the passionate discussions between our customers and partners on this topic over the past few days. I truly appreciate your honesty and different points of view—it's refreshing! As a partner and loyal customer of Starbucks, I definitely understand both perspectives on this idea. Many of you feel that adding names to faces will facilitate a better connection and make the interactions even more personal. On the other hand, some of you feel that it's too formal, it creates a fast-food feel, it's not necessary, or it's too personal. Our store partners are the … more »

This is Kevin Shawver and I work on the Wi-Fi program at Starbucks. First of all, I am excited to see all the energy around free Wi-Fi —we know it is important to our customers. I was secretly hoping that free Wi-Fi would be #1 amongst the popular ideas, but I’ll take #2. Back in February we announced that we're switching to AT&T as our Wi-Fi provider in our U.S. company-operated stores. As Brad Stevens mentioned in his post on March 24, we're thrilled to be rolling out two hours of complimentary Wi-Fi service for customers who have a registered Starbucks Card. It'll be simple to sign up. All you have to do is: Register a Starbucks Card Sign up for an AT&T Wi-Fi … more »

At the core of the Starbucks Experience is human connection. Every week, nearly 50 million customers are connecting with over 170,000 partners (employees) in Starbucks stores around the world—creating an unparalleled sense of community. This unique Starbucks community has inspired many people to suggest that Starbucks participate in the phenomenon of online communities. Well, now we’re ready to begin. Welcome to MyStarbucksIdea.com. This is your invitation to help us transform the future of Starbucks with your ideas—and build upon our history of co-creating the Starbucks Experience together. And just like in our stores, our curious and passionate Starbucks partners are here … more »

The idea to create a separate line for drip coffee customers is one Starbucks has considered. In fact, this concept was tested years ago with favorable results. I spoke with a store manager who tested a brewed coffee line during his busiest hours of the morning and was able to serve drip coffee customers very quickly. The biggest benefit was that these customers did not have to wait behind those wanting espresso beverages or pastries, which can take a bit of time to process. Customers ordering espresso beverages and pastries were also served more quickly since the drip coffee customers were not in their line. Another added benefit was for our baristas. Having an extra partner on the sales floor … more »

Hi everyone. My name is Brad Stevens, and I lead the group at Starbucks thinking about cool ways to reward our customers—and making those rewards a reality. So, wow! It’s clear that a frequency discount is something that would make a lot of people happy. We’ll explore how this might work as part of the Starbucks Card Rewards program that was announced last week. To date, we’ve been focused on starting with rewards that deliver value to our customers immediately AND daily. We think that providing you with on-the-spot value when you use a registered Starbucks Card is a great way to say “thanks”. So, starting in mid-April, when you pay with your registered Starbucks … more »

I'm Errol Stewart, User Interface Designer for My Starbucks Idea. A lot of people ask what my inspiration was for the visual design of this site. With all modesty in order, it's simply based on our white whole bean coffee bags—available at a Starbucks near you! Enthusiastically arrange the bags around your monitor for a coordinated My Starbucks Idea interactive experience. You, enlightened readers and loyal customers, are our favorite people. If it wasn't for you, we would have no reason to maintain this site. It's important to us (and to me, personally) that your stay is enjoyable and valuable. I frequently peruse this site, reading your ideas, suggestions, and, dare I … more »

It’s been just one week since launch and the My Starbucks Idea team has been (unimaginably) busy reading and commenting on your ideas. We want to say “thank you!” We’ve gotten so many great ideas and so much enthusiasm surrounding those ideas. It’s pretty amazing. Also, we’ve received some great questions/comments from some of you that we thought would be good to share with the entire community—so here it goes: What’s with the duplicate ideas? Yes, we’re seeing a lot of these. In some ways that’s a good thing—great minds think alike—but in terms of votes, it’s diluting them. So we just want to remind everyone to take … more »